Blackduck59

Of course there you go in the middle of winter describing a lovely roast dinner. I guess I could set up the rotisserie on the Barby. I'm not sure about using a whole bottle of port to make a "jus" though. We used to be able to get an Australian Port style wine called Tyrells fine old tawny, it was quite nice and very affordable, alas I haven't seen it in many years. right now the only port we have in the house do not tend to the "affordable" side. I do have a bottle of Sandeman Ruby that I wouldn't mind using to enhance a nice sauce to serve with a good roast. I have a bottle of Grahams late bottled vintage in the rack and I think I have a good Canadian made fortified wine (port style to some). Right now I'm enjoying a wee glass of Graham's 6 grapes.

Well how do we pronounce the venerable accompaniment to tea? In Canada many would call them "bisquits" but we all know that bisquits are cookies 😁. So then we have scone, scon and scoon. My grandmother who was born in Lancashire called them scons and she put raisins in them 😒. Lynn calls them scones because that's what they call them in the part of Scotland that she visited. On television and in a couple of establishments here (run by people with a deep Scottish brogue) it is scoon. Whatever you call them when prepared correctly and served while still warm from the oven they are a tasty treat.

Lynn enjoys lamb from time to time, I prefer Beef. I would have a real hard time justifying $100.00 per KG for any meat. I think the most I have ever paid was about $64.00 per KG for some prime Rib Eye it was heavily marbled and just so tasty. When we finally get down under we will be trying lamb in New Zealand and in Oz, I will try Australian Beef when we are there as well. We are able to get Australian beef and New Zealand lamb here and we have tried it but for some reason we prefer the Canadian raised product. We will come with an open mind, just because it is different to us doesn't mean it can't be good.

It is grilling weather here Les, cooking outside doesn't add extra heat inside. I had a fabulous New York steak 32mm thick, nicely marbled and a bargain at $28.00 per kilo. Lynn had a nice Sockeye Salmon fillet. Served up with potato salad. We had supper outside on our porch, there was a nice breeze and no construction noise.

Those prawns look delicious Leigh, I'm envious. We can get fresh spot prawns in season here, they are very tasty but quite tricky to cook properly. just a few seconds too long and the texture gets unpleasant. It's interesting to hear you guys talking about "southerners" finding it pleasantly warm in the north during winter. It sounds like you have similar winter weather in Canberra as we do in Victoria Mic. One of the reasons we love our Victoria is because we have the most moderate temperatures in Canada. Not too hot in summer (usually) or cold n the winter -6 is about as cold as it gets here. Of course I will be whining about that when winter comes and all my Ozzie friends are are looking for a cool breeze, or air conditioning and of course the cold treats that you enjoy down under.

Popsicles, Freezies and ice cream are all very popular around here just now. Not to mention the Tim Horton's Iced Cap or any number of variations of Iced Tea add some Pimm's #1 to that iced tea and it's a lovely cool down. You may have heard we are having a bit of a heat wave around here. We are experiencing high 20s to low 30s, that is here on Vancouver Island, other parts of the province are pushing 40. I know small change to many in OZ but this is the great white north after all 😟

Apparently cruising isn't for you. Your political attack on Dr. Henry was just not on. I'm sorry you had a bad cruising experience that's not Dr. Henry's fault.

I'm getting tired of the lame excuses for cutting simple things, Butter pats, packaged sugar and sweetener, now crackers. All in the name of reducing plastic packaging. Am I the only one that remembers that all these things were once found in paper packaging? Butter pats and crackers used to be packaged in waxed paper and the sugar and sweeteners were and are in paper packages. These people are running a floating hotel, penny pinching under the guise of being "Green". I don't really use saltines except in my soup, fine cheeses deserve something more than the little square crackers found in the red box (here in Canada). HAL is a big enough company that they could order up a special batch of saltines in paper packaging complete with the HAL logo probably for less than 10 cents per unit. Even at that low price it would add up to thousands of dollars a week to keep the world wide fleet in crackers. I had take out Chinese food the other day for my lunch they haven't been able to get the small soya sauce packages for months.

The Yukon is experiencing unprecedented wildfire activity this year. Here in BC we have had a rather mild fire season so far so we are lending some of our fire crews to the Yukon. This is our way of saying thank you to the Yukon for the help they gave us during our extreme fire season last year.

For those who asked for an update with regards to the wounded Police officers from the shoot out 2 weeks ago. I just saw on the evening news that the most seriously wounded member who has had at least 3 surgeries was moved out of intensive care today. He has a long recovery ahead. Another member was released from hospital so that will leave 2 members still in hospital and 4 recovering at home. Details of the investigation have been kept to a minimum. Some disturbing videos of the perpetrators have come to light and this may be less about robbing a bank and more about shooting police.

Have you been to the Yukon? We are looking at ways to do that. I haven't been there since 1977 and my wife has never been there. You could easily spend a week on Vancouver Island and only scratch the surface. I have lived on this island for most of my 63 years and haven't been north of Campbell River.

If you come back let us know, I'll stand the first round. I'll see if Barbs has any merch for sale, they don't show any on their website.

Aren't the little harbour ferries fun? We take them sometimes just because they are fun. We can park outside the downtown core and hop the little ferry into the inner harbour and wander around like a tourist. We haven't really gotten into Barbs, our favourite Fish & Chips shop is nowhere near Downtown. I was happy to see a ship that was here during the day. So many ships show up in the late afternoon and stay for about 4 hours. Victoria deserves a whole day, not just a 5 minute stop to fulfill the PVSA.

We had a visitor in Victoria today. We happened upon a small group excursion at the summit of Mt Tolmie, you can see the ships from there. I decided to take a picture, a royal visitor as it were.

I should just let this thread fade and die but felt I should chime in. The title of this thread is COMPLETELY misleading. I thought it was someone (like myself) who felt that Viking had not delivered the cruise experience they had expected for the price paid. When it turned out to be whining about the terms of payment, which are very well known. I just went, huh? Like many others who have responded, I think that you buy the product with the terms that apply or don't. There is no "standard" to live up to. If that product does not live up to your expectations then you may comment on that (which I certainly did after my cruise) Maybe now would be a good time to let this poorly titled thread fade off the board.

Try a "Pimm's Cup", it's not as dry as a G&T but a nice cocktail. Traditionally made with "Pimm's #1" mulled cucumber, lemon juice and ginger ale. My wife really enjoys them.

We were just watching the evening news and the flooding in NSW is quite alarming. It looks much like parts of British Columbia during last fall when we had the "atmospheric river" event. We hope everyone is safe. The destruction looks quite complete from the pictures they showed. Take care everyone. Lynn and I are thinking of you and hope you're on high ground.

Welcome to cruise critic. You will find much knowledge here and folks are more than willing to help. I thought I should mention that Australia is a vast country about the same size as the "lower 48" United States. So seeing much of that in 15 days will be hard. When we planned our 2 cancelled cruise vacations down under we planned to be away for 28+ days. The cruise portion with many port stops in New Zealand was a one way from Auckland to Sydney and that was 11 days. I'm sure you will get lots of good advice here but I suspect most will tell you 15 days isn't nearly long enough. Cheers, enjoy planning your trip.

I'll try San Juan, Puerto Rico

Perhaps they were magic mushrooms😉 I like mushrooms in pie they make a nice accompaniment to the all important meat. I'm sure there are some tasty pies without meat. I like cherry or banana cream myself although other meatless pies like apple and peach are quite satisfying. 😁

Okay, although the current state of cruising is up in the air; I would like to move forward. I'm looking for local knowledge on the land down under. I don't want to get specific in the "topic" but will throw out questions within the thread. Also I will be happy to answer any questions you may have about Canada. Keep in mind that like Australia Canada is a vast country and I probably don't know your buddy Bruce in Moose Jaw. But I do have pretty good knowledge of my home Province of BC. I look forward to gaining local knowledge from you and passing on local knowledge of my part of the world. First stop Auckland we have 2 days before the cruise what is not to be missed in Auckland?